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CA Hank Ketchum

2nd Vice President

Captain Hank Ketchum is the 2nd vice president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association (SWAPA). He began his term in January 2024.

Captain Ketchum has a Bachelor of Science degree in finance from the University of Arizona. In addition, he also has designations as a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) from the American Institute for Property Casualty Underwriters and an Associate in Risk Management (ARM) from the Insurance Institute of America.

Hank began his flying career at Continental Express Airlines and was hired by Southwest Airlines in 2001.

His work with SWAPA began in 2015 as a member of the newly reconstituted Negotiating Committee when the Tentative Agreement from that year was rejected by the membership. Hank started with the committee initially as a financial expert. He then established and became chair of the Economic & Financial Analysis (EFA) Committee. During his time with the EFA, he established relationships with the Wall Street buy- and sell-side analyst community; lead a team that conducted extensive financial analysis of the airline industry, global economy, and energy markets; made financial presentations to Southwest Airlines executives; and represented SWAPA as a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Airline Industry Consortium. He was also the first pilot union representative to be invited to present at the prestigious J.P. Morgan Global Transportation Conference in March 2018. Captain Ketchum then handed the reigns of the committee to the current chair and went back to flying full time.

He returned to SWAPA in 2021 as the chair of the Internal Audit Committee, where he performed an intensive internal audit of the Association, revamped the budgeting process, overhauled the organization’s risk management and insurance programs, and developed and implemented comprehensive procurement processes. His work has helped shape the way the Association does business both internally and within the airline industry through his implementation of best corporate practices.

Hank and his wife, Angela, live in Florida with their two beautiful daughters.